Recommended Cycling Supplements
 

Hey everybody!

I got a question here for any of you nutritional enthusiasts and what not. I have another big cycling trip coming up this summer, border to border, el paso texas up to the canadian border. It starts June 20th and my cycling group will be finished by July 14th. (long story short) My question is that I have weight lifted regularly for the past couple of years and have taken a numerous amount of different weight lifting supplements. My current build includes Pump-HD Pre-Workout Muscle Builder, Build-HD Anabolic Creatine, and BSN Syntha-6 Ultra Premium Protein Matrix. All of these products can be found at GNC where I regularly shop. So the question, what supplements should I take for cycling to help maintain my weight and give me that burst of strength and long lasting energy these products give me when I weight lift? I'm 6'0" and weigh approx. 165lbs. Don't worry about consulting a doctor, knowing your risk, etc. I have that covered I'm not foreign to that sector.

TLDR; What supplements should I take for cycling to help maintain my weight and give me that burst of strength and long lasting energy that my current supplements give?

Maybe you guys take supplements? Thoughts? Maybe I'll find something new that is unique to cycling aside from lifting!

thanks,
deCycles.

Why not cardiorespiratory, speed and muscular endurance workouts with lots of riding to get yourself ready?

Is that going to be 1500 to 1600 miles or so? 25 days with a few days off should be a around 4 to 6 hours of riding a day if you’re in as good a shape as you say. I’d be fine using REAL food calories and lots of water. That’s all I needed in doing a 400k brevet under the 27 hour time limit, which is probably around three of your days of riding. If you insist on supplements try them well before you leave on your trip to see how well they work for your body.

Doesn't work that way in cycling. (To be honest, I'm not sure if it works that way in weight lifting either.) After 3 hours pedaling at 2.5 W/kg, supplements are no longer important, the important questions are, (1) what did you eat for breakfast, (2) what did you eat in the last 3 hours.

It would be beneficial to make sure that you can tolerate maltodextrin, since it's one of the few substances that you can digest at the rate of 200+ calories/hour while on the bike, without having to drink enormous amounts of water. Maltodextrin is the primary component is several sports drinks and gels, including HEED, GU, and Clif Gels.

Here's some relevant info: http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/supplements

Yes we average about 15 mph and ride anywhere between 80-100 miles per day, some times more or less depending on our ending destination. It's my 4th trip so I know what it takes to get ready. I'm breaking the bike back out in a week or so and usually get about 700-1000 miles of riding if before the trip begins.

And just in general to anyone reading. I understand food and water are all you need.. It's what I have used for the past 3-4 years on these cycling trips, I'm just looking for something a little extra for this one now that I am really big into being built and in shape. Taking a scoop of ultra-premium lean muscle protein powder at night after each day is done? NOxplode or C4-Extreme to get you up in the morning and get on the bike with a burst of energy? An electrolyte replacement to slip in my water bottles to have throughout the day's journey? That's the big idea I am trying to propagate ha.

Breakfast each morning usually includes lots of bananas, maybe other fruit, bagels, cereal, most organic with toppings like honey and low fat cream cheese. We have rest breaks every 20-25 miles with plenty of fruit, veggies, and other snack items like that to keep us sustained throughout the day, also a 1 hour lunch break somewhere in the middle of the day's mileage that can include turkey and ham sandwiches with any toppings you can think of, etc.

I am with everyone else, in that in cycling, supplements aren't as important as they are in weight lifting. It is more about what you eat. Other than that, I take the occasional energy Gu, or electrolyte tab, and drink chocolate milk after most of my harder rides.

I have a huge weakness on my cycling trips when it comes to chocolate milk :)

Water
Carbs
protein
etc

I understand the training philosophy you are pulling from, but I think you'll find all those supplements to be unnecessary. When fed natural nutrition the body can build muscle, burn fat and produce plenty of adrenaline to get you going. Also, I would not want to haul around tubs of protein powder or anything else like that on a tour.

Have a great tour.

Eat right, be light, go strong.

Protein powder - yes. (The diet described above sounds light on protein. With that kind of daily load, you don't want to go lower than 1.5 g/kg of protein, maybe even 2 g/kg to be safe.)

NOxplode - not sure what it is or what it does (looked it up on GNC web site, it didn't help.)

Electrolyte replacement - yes, especially in hot weather. (You can get them in pill form to simplify dosage.)

If you want to carry stuff, you'll get the biggest bang from whey protein powder in water just before sleep. I always carry Endurolytes - they don't weigh much or take up much space. I've tried the NO stuff, didn't care for it. Caffeine, that's the stuff. You can get 100 mg tabs, work great. Cheaper and quicker than Starbucks. You can take 5g creatine/day if you want, doesn't weigh much, but it won't have any benefit for what you'll be doing. You can take BCAA caps for during the day. Might have some effect, but minor. You'll have to eat so much that you should get plenty of protein.

But you won't need any of this stuff. You might go a little faster and be a little stronger, but mostly what makes you faster is staying on the bike. Faster is getting to the rest stop 2 minutes earlier. Is that worth carrying stuff? Endurolytes being the exception. I always have those.

Jesus man how much do you spend on supplements? your stack also seems off a bit. why take a creatine supplement
when all good proteins have enough creatine and BCAA'S to not have to buy extra? also most if not all of your supplements your taking require you to cycle them on and off.

my suggestion is to first stop shopping at GNC because they are a rip off. start shopping online at bodybuilding.com or supplementwarehouse.com and you'll notice how much cheaper everything is. second dump syntha 6 because its overpriced and lacks a good combo of whey and casein protein. it also lacks in the BCAA department as well. switch over to combat powder and then you'll be able to dump your creatineand pump HD. You may also want to look into getting off C4 since its a cycle supplement. look at a pre workout like assault that doesn't require you to cycle.

any good trainer or someone that knows what they are doing will tell you to save your money on supplements and spend it on food. if you focus more on hitting your macros and less on what supplements you buy you'll be in even better shape. go compare the supplements i recommended with what your taking now. they offer more and are cheaper!

so you recommend the musclepharm brand? I have read much about it before but never really got serious about trying it.

edit: i spend approx. 100$ a month or more on supplements haha :D

yeah, two different worlds...With cycling the goal is to focus on recovery, not pre-workout zap. Other things to look at are a high quality protein/carb recovery drink like Ultragen (in addition to just protein). High quality carbs immediately after the ride are required too. Other than that you can supplement something like OptygenHP (mostly cordyceps and Beta-Alanine, you'll need to supplement with this for at least a month or so before to properly load. Also look into Iron to aid with the transfer of oxygen.

Carbs get no respect these days.